Chicken loose on subway tracks halts service in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY -- Service was temporarily halted on a line of Mexico City's subway system after a chicken got loose on the tracks.

Video distributed by the city's Metro system Monday showed the electricity cut off at a station near the city's center on Sunday.

The video showed maintenance personnel and civil defense officers in hard hats chasing the elusive bird around the tracks with brooms, gloves and a trash bag.

The chicken eluded several attempts to capture it before one worker tossed his coat over the bird.

The metro system said service was quickly restored after the incident.

Mexico City's subway system has been plagued by a series of incidents that city officials had claimed were sabotage. Earlier this year a woman was arrested, but later released, after bits of a plastic washing machine agitator fell on the subway tracks at another station. It was later determined the incident was accidental.

Accidents on the subway have been a recurrent embarrassment for Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who is considered the most likely candidate of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Morena party to succeed him in the 2024 presidential election.

In May 2021, an elevated section of the subway system collapsed, killing 26 people and injuring nearly 100. An investigation blamed deficiencies in the line's construction, and 10 former officials have been charged with homicide, injury and damage to property, though none have been jailed.

Like the president, Sheinbaum often ascribes setbacks to a conservative conspiracy against her.

Earlier this year, López Obrador ordered 6,000 National Guard agents to patrol subway platforms.